Soapbox Engage Blog

At the time of writing this article, we're eight months into the COVID-19 global pandemic. Social distancing and lockdowns have radically changed the way your organization engages donors and runs your mission -- you've done great rising to the challenges and adapting!

With the year (finally) drawing to a close, it's time to tackle your biggest challenge of 2020 yet - the virtual event fundraiser. You can do this, and the Soapbox Engage team is here to help you get over this hurdle, too!

Table of Contents

1. Pay attention to who, what, and why
2. Plan, don't panic
3. Build a solid framework
4. Choose a virtual fundraising event format
5. Pay attention to the details
6. Establish your agenda
7. Promote, promote, promote
8. Dry run early, then go live
9. Follow through and review

What is a virtual event?

If you haven't explored virtual fundraising events, now is definitely the time. A virtual fundraising event is any event broadcasted through a live-streaming platform like Zoom or Facebook Live with the purposes of collecting donations for your nonprofit organization.

Stay-at-home orders have brought online events to the forefront and made Zoom a household name, but we want to stress that virtual galas and fundraisers don't have to be directly tied to the lockdown period. We believe the benefits of virtual fundraisers will keep them around for a long time after we've kicked this virus to the curb.

Benefits of hosting virtual fundraising events and galas:

There are loads of great perks and benefits to online fundraising events and galas. Here are the top four we think particularly benefit nonprofits and charities:

1. Virtual events don't require physical space or physical logistics, and that means they don't require solving logistic problems.
2. All the money you're saving on physical logistics puts more money towards your organization's goals.
3. Online event registration and forms give you crucial information and make it easier to connect with and cater to your donors.
4. With online events, there is no limit to the number of people that can join. This means you can expand your donor base beyond your local area and reach for the stars.

How To Plan Your First Virtual Fundraising Event

Unfortunately, you can't just convert your old in-person event plans to virtual ones directly. Online fundraisers require a little different nuance and strategy. We've put together a definitive guide to help you plan your first virtual fundraising event or gala (and make it a smashing success).

1) Pay attention to who, what, and why

As you begin to plan, ask yourself those helpful "W" questions like, Why are we organizing this event? What is our mission? What was our progress in the last year?

Your primary goal for the entire event is to communicate these answers to your audience in an attractive or inspiring way. By clearly answering these questions during the planning process, you're far more likely to communicate that essential information to your donors during the event itself.

2) Plan, don't panic

Most virtual event planning experts recommend a 6-week planning timeline for single day events and a 12-week timeline for multi-day online events. These timelines give your team plenty of room to work out all the details and feel confident going into your first virtual fundraiser.

3) Build a solid framework

What do you need to meet your goals? Identify your budget and timeline for your future goals that you'll communicate to your audience. Make sure your goals are SMART and easy to understand. While you're working out your budget and fundraising goal, design your donation form and goal tracker with Soapbox Engage's Donations app.

Next, think about some metrics for you to determine your event or gala's success. Think beyond meeting your monetary goal and consider tracking things like registrations, ticket sales, views/sessions watched, contact information gathered, survey responses, user demos, meetings held, mentions or social media interactions, online reviews, number of donations, number of new donors, etc.

Remember, information is king, and each of these data points could set your organization up for success! Plan ways you'll gather and use that data both now and in the future.

4) Choose a virtual fundraising event format

Now that you've got a solid, practical framework for how your event can be measured for success, let's think of the fun stuff—the event format!

What sort of event experience do you want for your guests? What format best suits your organization and the interests of your target audience? A one-day or multi-day event, overly interactive or more passive, live or prerecorded, available to the public or just a small group of valued donors?

Do you have a lot of information you want to share with your donors? Or do you want to excite them with an entertaining experience? The sky's the limit here. We've come up with 40+ ideas to get you started, with everything from speeches and Q/A sessions to auctions and trivia quizzes.What's most important is to find something that fits your nonprofit's goals and feels authentic to you!

5) Pay attention to the details

Next create your event pages on your website and social media, link your donor page and buttons, create an agenda for the event, set up the right online tools, and plan your after event tasks.

When it comes to event registration and online donation tools, Soapbox Engage has you covered with direct integration to Salesforce! With that category down, consider the remaining four categories for your digital gala or event:

• Streaming services: Facebook Live, Zoom Pro, Twitch, and Youtube
• Invite tools: Twitter, Facebook Events and Invite, email, calls, and texts
• Analytics: Youtube, Facebook, and Google
• Hardware and software for your event: lighting, cameras, microphones, and OBS studio which offers audio control, screen sharing, and captioning for accessibility services.

Whatever platforms you choose for your event, remember to think mobile! Ensure your streaming services allow your donors to easily access your event and donation buttons through mobile connections (phones, iPads, etc.). Keep any on-screen text short and use a large font whenever screens are shared so viewers can easily read everything.

6) Establish your agenda

Regarding the agenda, brainstorm some key themes that will be interesting to your target audience. Come up with a concrete plan for content which engages those topics and navigate your speakers towards these themes.

Plan for a quick pace, no more than 30-45 minutes per session and be sure to incorporate lots of audience participation wherever possible! Delegate one person to keep the event running smoothly on schedule and another to create spaces for audience participation. And don't forget to plan breaks! (Fun fact: with the rise of online events due to COVID, people have taken to calling for "bio-breaks" to grab water, use the restroom, stretch, and generally care for their bodies throughout the day.)

Finally, when creating all your content, remember to ask yourself, "Why should visitors care? Why should they attend?" These questions will keep you and your fundraising team focused on the right content and goals.

When it comes to registration forms, try to minimize the time and information an audience member should provide to sign up for your event. Lastly, don't forget to check out Soapbox Engage's Events app for managing all the moving pieces!

7) Promote, promote, promote

Use as much time as you can scrape together for promotion and contact. Create a banner on your organization's home page directing visitors to your event. Schedule out promotion marketing and reminders on multiple channels: Google Ad Grants, LinkedIn, calendar app integration, social media, emails, etc.

Take full advantage of social media with a unique Twitter hashtag and encourage your followers to share the event details with their Facebook friends. Prepare weekly email reminders and tweets about your event. The more you use the better.

Remember to include all the important details about your virtual fundraising event on all your promotional materials, event pages and website. Widely broadcast the schedule, sessions and speakers, streaming platform information, attendance cost, sponsor information, and connection to social media event pages like Facebook and LinkedIn.

8) Dry run early, then go live

Rehearsal is key to catching problems early. Test your connection, sound, video, lighting, software programs and integration, and donation forms and buttons both with and without attendees. Have staff members attend the dry run to verify programs play nicely together and offer helpful feedback from the "attendee's" perspective.

Be sure to run through the entire agenda at least once so you can spot any pacing problems and conflicts. And prepare "dead air" filler content such as B-roll footage, music, and backup speakers.

Try to schedule time in advance with each of your speakers to ensure their connection, sound, and video are working great. Don't forget to pay attention to background decor while you're there. You want your speaker's background to be slightly more interesting than a blank wall, but definitely not so busy as to take away from the message of your event. And it's always best practice to check for any potentially controversial things like political icons, art, alcoholic beverages, or insensitive material that could find its way into camera shot.

Next, go live! You got this! Focus on engagement and acknowledgement of your attendees. Make sure you link their participation to your organization's "why". Subtly remind guests to donate by flashing your donation URL, directing them to the donate buttons, and mentioning donations from other attendees in the event. Now have a great time!

9) Follow through and review

You did it! It's all done! Take a deep breath! Your event was a hit thanks to all your hard work! Start your celebration with follow through. Thank everyone involved in making your gala a success, then gather your attendee data and send all of them thank you notes as well. Collect feedback from attendees through Soapbox Engage's Forms app to find out how you did. Then gather all your data in one nice place and review it with your amazing fundraising team.

What were the metrics you identified earlier? How did your event measure up? Most importantly, how can you leverage your event's content for future use? Could this become a repeat annual event? Could you release a recording of the event behind a paywall for future engagement with donors? Don't let all your hard work be a one time thing!

Now you've got everything you need to get started on your first online fundraising event or gala. We fully believe once you try your first virtual event, the benefits will have you hooked! Your donors have become more comfortable with virtual events and online interactions over the past year, and with Soapbox Engage's powerhouse of apps, your organization can capitalize on this.

Are you planning a year-end virtual fundraising event? Here are three more resources to get you started.

• 6 Reasons Stripe Is A Great Payment Gateway For Nonprofits: Online fundraising events essentially require that you're able to accept and process online donations. But there are so many payment processors to choose from! This blog post outlines why we believe Stripe is the best choice for most nonprofit organizations.
• Virtual Fitness Fundraising Ideas for Any Nonprofit: Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofits were harnessing the power of virtual fitness fundraisers. Now that many gyms and athletic events are cancelled, there's an army of athletes and fitness junkies looking for ways to stay motivated. Here's a guide to help your organization launch its first virtual fitness fundraiser!
• 8 Tips For Hosting A Virtual Fundraising Event: Even large companies like Salesforce are pivoting to virtual events as the world continues practicing social distancing. But it can feel like we're still learning what works and what makes for a great virtual fundraising event. This blog has some excellent tips to help your nonprofit organize a professional, effective virtual fundraiser.